Image forming apparatus and control method for the same

ABSTRACT

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a peripheral image acquisition section, a face detection section, a face recognition section and a printing control section. The peripheral image acquisition section acquires an image of the periphery of the image forming apparatus. The face detection section detects a face of person from the image acquired by the peripheral image acquisition section. The face recognition section calculates a matching rate indicating a matching degree of the face of person detected by the face detection section with a face of a user registered in advance. The printing control section executes a processing relating to printing of the image forming apparatus in a plurality of stages corresponding to the matching rates according to the matching rate calculated by the face recognition section and a threshold value of the matching rate.

FIELD

Embodiments described herein relate generally to an image formingapparatus and a control method for the image forming apparatus.

BACKGROUND

Conventionally, a face recognition technology which detects a face of aperson from an image is put into practical use. Such a face recognitiontechnology is applied to an authentication module in an MFP(multi-functional peripheral) for a user. In the MFP to which such aface recognition technology is applied, the user does not need to inputqualification information such as a password when using the MFP. Thus,the load of the user is reduced when using such an MFP.

On the other hand, the conventional MFP is transited to a state in whichthe MFP can print after authentication of the user is carried out. In acase of authenticating a user in response to an input operation of theuser, it is possible for the MFP to transit to a state in which the MFPcan print in parallel with the operation of the user. However, as statedabove, in a case in which the MFP is provided with the authenticationmodule with the use of the face recognition technology, the user doesnot need to carry out an input operation. Thus, there is a possibilitythat the user may feel that he/she needs to wait longer time in front ofthe MFP than the conventional MFP in a case in which the input operationis not required.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an external view illustrating an example of the wholeconstitution of an image forming apparatus 100 according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating the functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus 100 according to theembodiment;

FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram illustrating the flow of a processing whenthe image forming apparatus 100 controls the execution of aprinting-related processing in three stages (a first stage, a secondstage and a third stage);

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating the flow of the processingwhen the image forming apparatus 100 controls the execution of aprinting-related processing in three stages (the first stage, the secondstage and the third stage);

FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram illustrating the flow of the processingwhen the image forming apparatus 100 controls the execution of aprinting-related processing in three stages (the first stage, the secondstage and the third stage); and

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a concrete example of peripheral imageswhere faces of persons are detected.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises aperipheral image acquisition section, a face detection section, a facerecognition section and a printing control section. The peripheral imageacquisition section acquires an image of the periphery of the imageforming apparatus. The face detection section detects a face of personfrom the image acquired by the peripheral image acquisition section. Theface recognition section calculates a matching rate indicating amatching degree of the face of person detected by the face detectionsection with a face of a user registered in advance. The printingcontrol section executes a processing relating to printing of the imageforming apparatus in a plurality of stages corresponding to the matchingrates according to the matching rate calculated by the face recognitionsection and a threshold value of the matching rate.

Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus and a control method for theimage forming apparatus according to the embodiment are described withreference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view illustrating an example of the wholeconstitution of an image forming apparatus 100 according to anembodiment. The image forming apparatus 100 is, for example, amulti-functional peripheral. The image forming apparatus 100 comprises adisplay 110, a control panel 120, a printer section 130, a sheet housingsection 140, an image reading section 200 and an image capturing section300. Further, the printer section 130 of the image forming apparatus 100may be a device which fixes a toner image, or an inkjet type device.

The image forming apparatus 100 forms an image on a sheet with adeveloping agent such as toner. For example, the sheet is a paper or alabel paper. As long as the image forming apparatus 100 can form animage on the surface of sheet, no limitation is given to the form of thesheet.

The display 110 is an image display device such as a liquid crystaldisplay, an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display and the like. Thedisplay 110 displays various kinds of information relating to the imageforming apparatus 100.

The control panel 120 is provided with a plurality of buttons. Thecontrol panel 120 receives operations by a user. The control panel 120outputs signals corresponding to the operations carried out by the userto a control section of the image forming apparatus 100. Further, thedisplay 110 and the control panel 120 may be constituted as anintegrated touch panel.

The printer section 130 forms an image on the sheet according to theimage information generated by the image reading section 200 or imageinformation received through a communication path. For example, theprinter section 130 forms an image through a following processing. Animage forming section of the printer section 130 forms an electrostaticlatent image on a photoconductive drum according to the imageinformation. The image forming section of the printer section 130enables the developing agent to adhere to the electrostatic latent imageto form a visible image. As a concrete example of the developing agent,there is toner. A transfer section of the printer section 130 transfersthe visible image onto the sheet. A fixing device of the printer section130 heats and presses the sheet to fix the visible image on the sheet.Further, the sheet formed with the image may be a sheet housed in thesheet housing section 140, or a manually fed sheet.

The sheet housing section 140 stores the sheets used in image formingprocessing by the printer section 130.

The image reading section 200 reads image information of a readingobject as brightness and darkness of light. The image reading section200 records the read image information. The recorded image informationmay be sent to other information processing apparatus via a network. Therecorded image information may be formed to be an image on a sheet withthe printer section 130.

The image capturing section 300 is an image capturing device such as acamera which photographs the periphery of the image forming apparatus100. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the image capturing section 300 isarranged at the upper part of the image forming apparatus 100. The imagecapturing section 300 continuously photographs the periphery of theimage forming apparatus 100 in a given cycle. The image capturingsection 300 generates an image (hereinafter referred to as a “peripheralimage”) obtained by photographing the periphery of the image formingapparatus 100, and outputs it to the image forming apparatus 100. Aslong as it can photograph the periphery of the image forming apparatus100, the image capturing section 300 is not limited to be installed onthe image forming apparatus 100. For example, the image capturingsection 300 may be connected with the image forming apparatus 100through a communication cable, and arranged on a wall or ceiling in aroom where the image forming apparatus 100 is arranged.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating the functionalcomponents of the image forming apparatus 100 according to theembodiment. The image forming apparatus 100, which comprises a CPU(Central Processing Unit), a memory and an auxiliary storage device thatare connected with each other through a bus line, executes controlprograms. The image forming apparatus 100 functions as an apparatuscomprising a storage section 101, a printing data acquisition section102, a peripheral image acquisition section 103, a face detectionsection 104, a face recognition section 105 and a printing controlsection 106 through the execution of the control programs. Further, thewhole or part of functions of the image forming apparatus 100 may berealized by the hardware such as an ASIC (Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit), a PLD (Programmable Logic Device), a FPGA (FieldProgrammable Gate Array) and the like. The control programs may berecorded in a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readablerecording medium is a storage device such as a flexible disc, an opticalmagnetic disc, a ROM, a movable medium such as a CD-ROM, a hard discthat is arranged inside a computer system and the like. The controlprograms may be sent via an electrical communication line.

The storage section 101 is a storage device such as a magnetic harddisc, a semiconductor storage device and the like. In the storagesection 101, information (hereinafter referred to as “user information”)relating to the user of the image forming apparatus is stored inadvance. For example, the user information contains informationindicating printing conditions set for each user, attribute of a userand the like. Further, the user information contains information(hereinafter referred to as “first face information”) indicating facialfeatures of each user. The first face information can be generatedthrough any existing method as long as it can indicate facial featuresand can be compared through numerical values. For example, the firstface information is indicated by positions of a plurality of featurepoints extracted from the image obtained by photographing the face ofuser.

Further, the storage section 101 stores data (hereinafter referred to as“printing data”) to be printed. For example, the printing data isgenerated in a user terminal such as a PC (personal computer) when theuser inputs a printing instruction. The generated printing data is sentto the image forming apparatus 100. Further, the printing data is sentto the image forming apparatus 100 together with the identificationinformation of the user who inputs the printing instruction. In thisway, the image forming apparatus 100 is possible to recognize the userwho gives an instruction to print the printing data according to theidentification information of the user sent together with the printingdata.

The printing data acquisition section 102 includes a communicationinterface that is capable of communicating with the user terminal. Theprinting data acquisition section 102 communicates with the userterminal to acquire the printing data from the user terminal. Theprinting data acquisition section 102 stores the acquired printing datain association with the identification information of the user senttogether with the printing data in the storage section 101.

The peripheral image acquisition section 103 acquires a peripheral imagefrom the image capturing section 300. The peripheral image acquisitionsection 103 outputs the acquired peripheral image to the face detectionsection 104.

The face detection section 104 acquires the peripheral image from theperipheral image acquisition section 103. The face detection section 104detects a face of person from the acquired peripheral image. An existingface recognition technology may be used to detect the face of personfrom the peripheral image through the face detection section 104. Basedon the image containing the detected face of person, the face detectionsection 104 generates information (hereinafter referred to as “secondface information”) indicating the features of the detected face ofperson. The face detection section 104 outputs the generated second faceinformation to the face recognition section 105.

The face recognition section 105 acquires an index value indicating amatching degree of the face of person detected from the peripheral imagewith a face of the user registered in the image forming apparatus inadvance. Hereinafter, this index value is referred to as a matchingrate. Specifically, the face recognition section 105 calculates amatching rate according to the first face information registered in theimage forming apparatus in advance and the second face informationgenerated from the peripheral image. For example, the face recognitionsection 105 calculates the matching rate according to the magnitude ofdeviation of the position of feature points indicated in the first faceinformation from the position of feature points indicated in the secondface information.

The printing control section 106 controls to start the processingrelating to printing of the image forming apparatus in a plurality ofstages corresponding to the matching rate calculated by the facerecognition section 105. Hereinafter, the processing relating toprinting of the image forming apparatus 100 is described as aprinting-related processing. For example, a heating processing of thefixing device is one of the printing-related processing. The heatingprocessing of the fixing device is used to heat the fixing device from astate in which the temperature thereof is lower than a temperature atwhich the visible image is fixed on a sheet to a fixable temperature.Specifically, the temperature of the fixing device rises from a state inwhich the temperature thereof is lower than a temperature at which thevisible image is fixed on a sheet to a state of a fixable temperature bysupplying power to the heater of the fixing device or by increasing thesupplied power.

Further, for example, an acquisition processing of printing data is oneof the printing-related processing. The acquisition processing ofprinting data refers to acquiring given printing data of a user from theprinting data stored in the storage section 101. Further, in a case inwhich the printing data is stored by an external device such as a printserver, the printing data may be acquired through communication with theexternal device.

Further, for example, an image processing executed for the printing datais one of the printing-related processing. For example, the imageprocessing is a processing for improving image quality, a processing forsynthesizing a plurality of images and the like.

Further, for example, an authentication processing is one of theprinting-related processing. The authentication processing is used toauthenticate a user who operates the image forming apparatus 100. Afterthe user is authenticated by the image forming apparatus 100, it ispossible to print the printing data sent from the user terminal.

Further, for example, an image forming processing is one of theprinting-related processing. The image forming processing is used toform the visible image generated according to the printing data on asheet with toner.

The printing control section 106 controls the execution of theprinting-related processing in a plurality of stages corresponding tomatching rates acquired according to the peripheral image. Further, theprinting-related processing described above is an concrete example, andthe printing-related processing controlled by the printing controlsection 106 may be processing other than the aforementioned processing.

Incidentally, in general, the closer the position of an image capturingobject is to the image capturing apparatus in a real space, the higherthe precision for recognizing the image capturing object in an image is.Thus, the matching rate of the person detected from the peripheral imagebecomes higher values as the user is photographed at positions closer tothe image forming apparatus 100. In other words, the matching rate isconsidered to be correlative to a distance between the person detectedfrom the peripheral image and the image capturing section 300. Thus, theuser who is detected with a high matching rate is located at a positionclose to the image forming apparatus 100, and it is considered that theuser uses the image forming apparatus 100 very probably. On the otherhand, since the user who is detected with a low matching rate is locatedat a position far away from the image forming apparatus 100, it takessome time for the user to arrive at the image forming apparatus 100 insome degree. Thus, the printing-related processing is executed in aplurality of stages corresponding to the matching rates, and in thisway, the image forming apparatus 100 can reduce the waiting time of theuser.

FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are sequence diagrams illustrating the flow ofa processing when the image forming apparatus 100 controls the executionof the printing-related processing in three stages (including a firststage, a second stage and a third stage). Herein, it is exemplified thatthe heating processing of the fixing device, the acquisition processingof the printing data, the image processing, the authenticationprocessing and the image forming processing are the printing-relatedprocessing to be controlled.

First, an operation to input a printing instruction is carried out inthe user terminal. The user terminal receives an input of printinginstruction (ACT 101). The user terminal generates printing data basedon the input information (ACT 102). The user terminal sends thegenerated printing data and the identification information of the userwho inputs the printing instruction to the image forming apparatus 100(ACT 103).

The printing data acquisition section 102 of the image forming apparatus100 receives the printing data and the identification information of theuser sent from the user terminal (ACT 104). The printing dataacquisition section 102 stores the received printing data in associationwith the identification information of the user in the storage section101.

On the other hand, the image capturing section 300 of the image formingapparatus 100 photographs the periphery of the image forming apparatus100. The image capturing section 300 outputs the peripheral imageobtained by the image capturing process to the image forming apparatus100. The peripheral image acquisition section 103 acquires theperipheral image from the image capturing section 300 (ACT 105). Theperipheral image acquisition section 103 outputs the acquired peripheralimage to the face detection section 104.

Further, the processing in ACT 101˜ACT 104 can be executed at any timeupon the input of the printing instruction in the user terminal. Forfacilitating the description, the processing in ACT 101˜ACT 104 is onlyshown in the beginning of the flowchart in FIG. 3.

Further, the processing in and after ACT 106 is executed on theperipheral images respectively acquired in each image capturing cycle ofthe image capturing section 300. For facilitating the description, onlythe flow of a processing executed on one image captured in some imagecapturing cycle (For example, ACT 105) is shown in FIG. 3.

Next, the face detection section 104 acquires a peripheral image fromthe peripheral image acquisition section 103. The face detection section104 detects a face of person from the acquired peripheral image (ACT106). The face detection section 104 generates the second faceinformation based on the image of the face of person detected from theperipheral image (ACT 107). The face detection section 104 outputs thegenerated second face information to the face recognition section 105.

The face recognition section 105 calculates a matching rate of the faceof person detected from the peripheral image and a face of a userregistered in the image forming apparatus in advance (ACT 108).Specifically, the face recognition section 105 calculates the matchingrate according to the first face information that is registered in theimage forming apparatus in advance and the second face informationgenerated by the face detection section 104. The face recognitionsection 105 determines whether or not there is a user of the imageforming apparatus among the detected persons according to the calculatedmatching rate (ACT 109). Specifically, the face recognition section 105determines whether or not there is a user of the image forming apparatusamong the detected persons by comparing a matching rate of each personwith a given threshold value stored in the storage section 101. In acase in which the matching rate is smaller than the threshold value, theface recognition section 105 determines that the person is not the userof the image forming apparatus. Further, in a case in which the matchingrate is greater than the matching rate, the face recognition section 105determines that the person is the user of the image forming apparatus.

Further, the determination processing described herein is not used tospecify the users strictly, but to reduce the number of users serving asthe processing target. Since the user is specified through thesubsequent determination processing described later, a relatively lowmatching rate may be set for the aforementioned threshold value. Theaforementioned threshold value may be stored in the storage section 101in advance, or input from an external terminal capable of communicatingwith the image forming apparatus 100 or the control panel 120. Further,the threshold value may be changed properly in response to the inputfrom the control panel 120 or the terminal based on a test result at thetime of design, an application result in practice and the like.

In a case in which there is no user of the image forming apparatus amongthe detected persons (NO in ACT 109), the face recognition section 105returns to carry out the processing in ACT 105. On the contrary, in acase in which there is a user of the image forming apparatus among thedetected persons (YES in ACT 109), the face recognition section 105outputs the matching rate of this person to the printing control section106. At this time, the face recognition section 105 outputs the matchingrate of this person and the identification information of a user who maymatch with this person.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a concrete example of the peripheralimage in which the faces of persons are detected. A peripheral image 400is an example of peripheral images acquired by the image capturingsection 300 which is arranged to photograph a passage 401 directed tothe image forming apparatus 100. In the peripheral image 400, threepersons including a person 411, a person 412 and a person 413 arephotographed. The persons 411, 412 and 413 are located at positionsclose to the image capturing section 300 in the order of the person 411,the person 412 and the person 413.

Further, detection displays 421, 422 and 423 indicate the positions offaces of persons detected by the face detection section 104. Thepercentages recorded nearby all the detection displays indicate thematching rates calculated for the persons respectively. As shown in FIG.6, in general, the more the person moves away from the image capturingsection 300, the lower the matching rate is. Thus, it is possible todetermine a distance between the image forming apparatus 100 and aperson located at the periphery of the image forming apparatus 100through the matching rate. Further, for the sake of simplicity, onematching rate is recorded for each person in FIG. 6; however, there is acase in which a plurality of matching rates may be calculated for eachperson. For example, in a case in which a plurality of users isregistered in the image forming apparatus 100, the matching rate of eachdetected person with each of the users of the image forming apparatus100 is calculated.

Return to the descriptions in FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. The printingcontrol section 106 acquires the matching rates of the persons detectedfrom the peripheral image from the face recognition section 105. Theprinting control section 106 executes the printing-related processingrespectively corresponding to the first˜third stages according to thematching rates of the detected persons. Further, the matching rate ofeach person acquired herein is acquired in association with the numberof users registered in the image forming apparatus 100 with respect toone person.

Specifically, the printing control section 106 selects any one matchingrate from the acquired matching rates, and determines whether or not theselected matching rate is equal to or greater than the first thresholdvalue (ACT 111). In a case in which the selected matching rate issmaller than the first threshold value (NO in ACT 111), the printingcontrol section 106 selects one of the other acquired matching rates(ACT 110), and returns to carry out the processing in ACT 109.

On the contrary, in a case in which the selected matching rate is equalto or greater than the first threshold value (YES in ACT 111), theprinting control section 106 determines whether or not there is printingdata of a user corresponding to the matching rate in the storage section101 (ACT 112). In a case in which there is no printing data of a usercorresponding to the matching rate (NO in ACT 112), the printing controlsection 106 selects one of the other acquired matching rates (ACT 110),and returns to carry out the processing in ACT 109. On the contrary, ina case in which there is printing data of a user corresponding to thematching rate in the storage section 101 (YES in ACT 112), the printingcontrol section 106 executes a first printing-related processing. Thefirst threshold value is a matching rate higher than the threshold valueused in the determination processing in ACT 109, and is a matching ratenot higher to a degree under which a user can be specified. Thus, theprinting control section 106 executes a printing-related processingwhich does not need to specify users as the first printing-relatedprocessing. For example, the printing control section 106 executes theheating processing of the fixing device (ACT 113).

Next, the printing control section 106 determines whether or not theselected matching rate is equal to or greater than the second thresholdvalue (ACT 114). In a case in which the selected matching rate issmaller than the second threshold value (NO in ACT 114), the printingcontrol section 106 selects one of the other acquired matching rates(ACT 110), and returns to carry out the processing in ACT 109. On thecontrary, in a case in which the selected matching rate is equal to orgreater than the second threshold value (YES in ACT 114), the printingcontrol section 106 executes a second printing-related processing. Thesecond threshold value is a matching rate higher than the firstthreshold value, and is a matching rate to a degree under whichcandidates may be narrowed down to a certain small number of users.Thus, the printing control section 106 executes a printing-relatedprocessing which is preferred to be executed after the candidates arenarrowed down to a certain small number of users as the secondprinting-related processing. For example, the printing control section106 executes the acquisition processing of the printing data of the usercorresponding to the acquired matching rate (ACT 115). The printingcontrol section 106 executes an image processing on the acquiredprinting data (ACT 116).

Next, the printing control section 106 determines whether or not theselected matching rate is equal to or greater than the third thresholdvalue (ACT 117). In a case in which the selected matching rate issmaller than the third threshold value (NO in ACT 117), the printingcontrol section 106 selects one of the other acquired matching rates(ACT 110), and returns to carry out the processing in ACT 109. On thecontrary, in a case in which the selected matching rate is equal to orgreater than the third threshold value (YES in ACT 117), the printingcontrol section 106 executes a third printing-related processing. Thethird threshold value is a matching rate higher than the secondthreshold value, and is a matching rate higher to a degree under which auser can be specified. Thus, the printing control section 106 executes aprinting-related processing on the premise that the user is specified asa third printing-related processing. For example, the printing controlsection 106 executes a user login processing (ACT 118). After the loginprocessing is executed, the image forming apparatus 100 can be operatedby the user corresponding to the selected matching rate. Further, thematching rate, which is higher than the third threshold value, meansthat the user is located at a position quite close to the image formingapparatus 100. Thus, by carrying out the login processing as the thirdprinting-related processing, the user can operate the image formingapparatus 100 without inputting qualification information.

Next, the printing control section 106 carries out a notification(display, sound and so on) which urges the user to execute printing andreceives an input of an execution instruction to print (ACT 119). If theexecution instruction to print is input, the printing control section106 executes an image forming processing on the printing data of theuser (ACT 120).

The image forming apparatus 100 with the above-mentioned construction inthe present embodiment can start an executable printing-relatedprocessing in advance until a user arrives at the position of the imageforming apparatus. With such a function, it is possible for the user whooperates the image forming apparatus 100 to reduce the waiting time whenexecuting a printing processing.

In the present embodiment, the user information is stored in the storagesection 101 of the image forming apparatus 100 in advance; however, theuser information may be stored in a storage section of an externaldevice in advance and read out from the storage section of the externaldevice via a network.

Hereinafter, a modification of the image forming apparatus 100 of theembodiment is described.

The execution control on the printing-related processing carried out bythe image forming apparatus 100 is not limited to the three-stagescontrol described above. For example, the printing control section 106may control to execute the printing-related processing in two stages ormore than three stages. For example, the printing control section 106may control to execute the heating processing of the fixing device inthe first stage, and the other printing-related processing in the secondstage. Further, the printing control section 106 may control to executethe acquisition processing of printing data in the second stage, theimage processing in the third stage and the login processing in thefourth stage.

The execution order of the printing-related processing controlled by theimage forming apparatus 100 may be changed or not provided in responseto the state of the image forming apparatus 100. For example, in a casein which the fixing device has already been at a quite high temperature,the printing-related processing in the first stage may be not provided.Further, in a case in which there are much printing data to beprocessed, it may be controlled to execute the start of the imageprocessing earlier than the start of the heating processing, forexample.

As long as it is a determination method according to a distance from theimage forming apparatus 100 to a user, the determination method in eachstage is not limited to a form based on a matching rate. For example,the size of faces detected from the peripheral image is considered to becorrelative to the distances between the detected person and the imagecapturing section 300. However, there is a possibility that a usercannot be specified only through the size of faces. Thus, in a stage inwhich it is not required to specify the user, the image formingapparatus 100 may carry out the determination processing in each stagewith the size of the detected faces. Further, there is a conventionaltechnology in which a distance between an image capturing object and animage capturing section is estimated according to an image. For example,the image forming apparatus 100 may carry out the determinationprocessing in each stage on the basis of an estimated distance betweenthe image capturing section 300 and the image capturing object accordingto an image.

While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments havebeen presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit thescope of the invention. Indeed, the novel embodiments described hereinmay be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, variousomissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodimentsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended tocover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope andspirit of the invention.

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: a face recognition sectionconfigured to calculate a matching rate based on an informationindicating image feature of a face of a person, detected from anperiphery image that is an image of the periphery of image formingapparatus and an information indicating image feature of a registeredimage which is an image of a face of a user registered to the imageforming apparatus in advance, wherein the matching rate correlates adistance between the image forming apparatus and the person whose faceis detected from the periphery image; and a printing control sectionconfigured to control a printing process having a plurality ofprocessing stages, each processing stage being associated at least inpart with a respective threshold in one or more thresholds, the printingcontrol section configured to compare the matching rate to at least oneof the one or more thresholds, the printing control section configuredto determine whether the matching rate exceeds the at least one of theone or more thresholds.
 2. The image forming apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein each of the plurality of processing stages isassociated with a respective processing set which comprises at least oneof a heating processing of a fixing device, an acquisition processing ofprinting data, an image processing on the printing data and an imageforming processing in which the printing data to which the imageprocessing is carried out is formed on a sheet.
 3. The image formingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of processingstages comprises a first processing stage and a second processing stage,the first processing stage is to be used before the user is specified,and the second processing stage is to be used after the user isspecified.
 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, whereinthe first processing stage is to be used for performing the heatingprocessing of the fixing device.
 5. The image forming apparatusaccording to claim 3, wherein the second processing stage is to be usedfor performing the acquisition processing of the printing data, theimage processing on the printing data and the image forming processingon the printing data.
 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim3, wherein the second processing stage includes a third processing stageand a fourth processing stage, the third processing stage is a stage onwhich the user is specified at a lower specified rate, and the fourthprocessing stage is another stage on which the user is specified at ahigher specified rate which is higher than the lower specified rate, andthe third processing stage is to be used for performing one or moreprocessing which does not require user authentication and the forthprocessing stage is to be used for performing one or more processingwhich requires user authentication.
 7. The image forming apparatusaccording to claim 6, wherein the third processing stage is to be usedfor performing the image processing on the printing data, and the forthprocessing stage is to be used for performing a login processing.
 8. Theimage forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the printingcontrol section configured to specify the user whose face is detectedfrom the periphery image to the user who is registered to image formingapparatus in advance based on the matching rate, and the printingcontrol section configured to authenticate a user who is specified at ahigher specified rate without requiring a qualification information ofthe user.
 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, whereineach processing stage is associated with the respective threshold in theone or more thresholds and a current state of the image formingapparatus.
 10. A control method for the image forming apparatus,including: calculating a matching rate based on an informationindicating a image feature of a face of a person, detected from anperiphery image that is an image of the periphery of image formingapparatus and an information indicating image feature of a registeredimage which is an image of a face of a user registered to the imageforming apparatus in advance, wherein the matching rate correlates adistance between the image forming apparatus and the person whose faceis detected from the periphery image; and controlling a printing processhaving a plurality of processing stages, each processing stage beingassociated at least in part with a respective threshold in one or morethresholds, the printing control section configured to compare thematching rate to at least one of the one or more thresholds, theprinting control section configured to determine whether the matchingrate exceeds the at least one of the one or more thresholds.